Joint Statement on Sustainable Agricultural Commodity Trade and Cooperation to Conserve Forests
The UK and Malaysia reaffirm their shared and ongoing commitment to work together to conserve forests and to support and promote sustainable supply chains, and sustainable production of commodities.
The UK and Malaysia are signatories to the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, and we acknowledge our commitment to the objectives of the Declaration. We will continue to cooperate bilaterally, including through the UK-Malaysia Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Climate Action (2022), and in fora such as the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) dialogue to support these objectives.
Both Parties will continue to uphold their respective commitments to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Sustainable Development Goals and other relevant initiatives.
The UK and Malaysia commit to communicate facts with relevant stakeholders around palm oil and initiatives to support sustainable supply chains. The UK and Malaysia also commit to regularly share information with one another about ongoing domestic developments related to the environment and sustainable supply chains and production. This will include initiatives by Malaysia to support and develop the sustainability of Malaysian palm oil, including the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme and forthcoming updates to the scheme and, separately, the development by the UK of the Forest Risk Commodity regulations under the Environment Act 2021 including guidance for regulated businesses to support their compliance with the legislation once implemented. The UK and Malaysia acknowledge the role of these initiatives in improving the sustainability of supply chains.
The UK and Malaysia look forward to continuing their efforts to support and encourage future development of sustainability domestically and internationally to meet our shared goals.